Sunday, 15 June 2014

Rum and coffee cake

Father’s
day always forces me to bake altruistically as one of the CCD’s (Caked Crusader’s
Da) favourite cake flavours is coffee, which I cannot abide in any shape or
form. This cake also uses one of his other favourite things: rum.

Sticking
with my theme of altruism, I jettisoned any ideas for buttercreams or whipped
cream because that is not at all the CCD’s style. Serve him a wedge of
sponge he can just pick up and eat and he’s happy. Serve him something he
needs a pastry fork to navigate around and he sees it as unnecessary fuss.

Given
that the cake needed to absorb a lot of liquid without turning to mush I opted
for a firmer, closer crumbed sponge and it held up well. The inclusion of
sour cream balances the sugar; I always think the inclusion of buttermilk/sour
cream/yoghurt gives a velvety softness to a sponge. Definitely plan ahead
with this bake as it is best made the day before and left to absorb the coffee
overnight.

The
liquid does make the sponge depress a little, so don’t worry. I’m finding it hard to know what to say about
this cake because I am so not the
target audience for it! Sometimes,
though, the right cake doesn’t need to be flash nor a showstopper - all I can
say is that the CCD enjoyed it so, job done!

Start by beating together the butter and sugar. Take time over this and
beat until it is pale, light and fluffy.

Beat in the vanilla.

Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding some of the flour if it looks like it
might curdle.

Beat in half the flour.

Beat in half the sour cream.

Beat in the remaining flour, along with the baking powder and salt.

Beat in the remaining sour cream.

Spoon the mix into the prepared tin and bake for approximately 50 minutes, or
until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean; check after 40 minutes
to ensure the cake isn’t browning too quickly – if it is, loosely cover the top
with foil and continue baking.

Leave in the tin and wrap the base and sides of the outside of the tin in foil-
this will stop any leakage from the syrup and prevents a sticky cleaning up
job! N.B if you’ve used a liner for the tin
there’s no need to do this.

Now make the syrup: mix together the sugar, rum and hot coffee until you can
feel that the sugar has dissolved. If you do this in a glass bowl you
will be able to see when this has happened; I usually rely on dragging the
spoon along the bottom of the dish – if it seems smooth everything has
dissolved!

Poke some holes in the top of the cake and brush the hot syrup onto the warm
cake – I find this gives the best absorption. You can pour but I prefer
the control over distribution that a brush gives.

If you feel that the cake is getting too wet, let it rest for 10 minutes then
resume brushing on the liquid.

Leave to cool completely in the tin on a wire rack.

It is best to make the cake a day in advance to let the coffee and cake settle
down overnight.

Are you sure it isn't a conspiracy to have a favourite cake that you can't eat? I reckon it is a good way of keeping it to himself! Well done CCD..... now you can have your cake and eat it! And quite right too..... especially being Father's Day. Looks delicious!

Baking altruistically is something I generally only do when I'm on a diet - for example I always bake lemon cake if I'm dieting as I hate it and therefore will never be temped to sneakily have a piece (or three)! I'm glad CCD enjoyed this cake though; after all Father's Day only comes round once a year!

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So, the answer to the question you’re all asking: who am I? Well, a superhero never reveals their identity. I think it’s stated somewhere in the contract when you sign up for superhero-dom. Let’s just call me THE CAKED CRUSADER. By day (and night if I’m being honest) a mild-mannered City professional, but at weekends I become THE CAKED CRUSADER. Tirelessly fighting anti-cake propaganda and cake-related injustices – for SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE, ALWAYS NEEDS CAKE (we’ll just skip over the fact that it’s usually me).

Batman’s got the batmobile, batcave etc. Superman does just great what with being able to fly and being really strong. Spiderman’s got that web thing going on. But I have better than them. For I have a credit card and could get one of these:

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About Me

I am a 40-something Chartered Accountant working in the square mile.
My main hobbies at the moment are baking, and setting the world record for the number of cake tins owned by one person.
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